Friday, March 13, 2009

One Gun Restriction Down

If Thursday's vote in the Tennessee House of Representatives is any indication, Republicans in the General Assembly will at least be able to say at the end of the Crazy 106th that they succeeded in repealing many gun restrictions-a campaign promise:

The measure sponsored by House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada was approved on an 82-11 vote, with four members abstaining. The companion bill is awaiting a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Casada, of Franklin, cited Tennessee Bureau of Investigation information that the agency has only once asked for a thumbprint from the 2.3 million guns sold since the law went into effect in 1998.

And he said that print was smudged and unusable.

Liberals often whine about the need to restrict gun ownership (what they really want to do is ban it) but since they know that their ideas about gun restriction are practically worthless in this country, their only option is to force gun dealers to behave like policemen. Mind you, since laws are already in place which prevent felons from buying firearms from a gun dealer, the people who purchase guns from a dealer are going to be law abiding citizens. That would be why the TBI has only asked for a single thumbprint in 11 years.

A waste of taxpayers' money and gun dealers' time.

NOTE: I want to thank everyone who has sent notes and made calls inquiring as to my illness. As you might glean from the lateness of this post, I am still recovering, but I do feel slightly better today.

6 Comments:

Swing - and a miss! Once again, Dave, you and your conservative ilk miss the point. We liberals would like reasonable restrictions on guns - nothing very restrictive, but we would like to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable, criminals and a select group of others (I particularly worry about you having a gun). Living in White Pine, you don't see the damage that guns can cause in a community such as So. Central Los Angeles. What you disregard are the gun dealers who sell thousands of weapons to gang members and members of the Mexican drug cartels and these same weapons are used against our police officers. i'm sure you want every American to own automatic weapons and armour piercing bullets, but we liberals believe that you don't have to own an armory to protect your household - and I sure as hell don't want some drunk carrying a firearm into a bar. For that matter, I don't want Stacey Campfield to have any kind of weapon - including a dull stick - he's dangerous enough as it is.

David,Sing - and a miss?? Yeah ... I have to agree.There's nothing stopping a criminal from lying when buying a gun. Agreed, most criminals don't buy them legally - they're more likely to steal them or buy them on the blackmarket, but there's really nothing stopping them. And as for law abiding citizens, keep in mind that the Alabama shooter involved in the recent rampage there owned his guns legally and even had a valid concealed carry permit. Just a friendly FYI.

I get the hunting/home protection thing, but seriously, why do you need armor piercing bullets? Don't you agree that there is really only a sinister purpose behind that? After the financial crisis, it seems that we can at least meet in the middle on Wall Street regulation. Why doesn't the fallout of a shooting spree invoke the same kind of response? Is there no room for empathy on that subject?

To what extent do you believe that a person should have the right to own an "armory?" Is it your position that a person has the right to own any type of weapon? Machine guns? Flame throwers? Tanks? Hydrogen bombs? Where would you draw the line?

If you believe that owning these types of weapons, do you believe that your neighbors should have the right to know that you own them. I sure as hell would want to know that my crazy-assed neighbor owned a flame thrower. Would you support a public database of these types of weapons?

I was the moving force behind the bill to delete the thumbprint requirement. Rep Casada's admin ass't was a customer and I asked her how to get rid of it. TBI was for it as well. So the legislation rolled from there.What others mention as "reasonable restrictions" are generally already law. Murdering people is already illegal.

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About Me

I'm a freelance political and sports writer, and former sports radio talk co-host. I am currently an Aspirant to the Permanent Diaconate of the Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee.